Collection holders

Lee wrote:
>> California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) has a created a list of "Fruit
Specialists" who know a lot about a particular species of fruit tree. They
also usually grow many different cultivars of that particular species.
Nice. Very nice. I was a member of CRFG for years, and I think that
approach has worked very well for them. The Specialists are associated with
particular fruit that they know best, but because the focus is on the people
and their skills rather than just the things they grow, their system is more
flexible. CRFG chooses only one expert for each type of fruit, but there's
no reason we couldn't have multiple experts.
Jane, please forgive me for using you as an example, but this way we could
list you as a Calochortus specialist (or "expert" or "champion" or "guru" or
some other term we like) without you being obligated to grow all of the
Mexican species.
If you think it's hard to preserve endangered species, imagine what it's
like for the fruit growers to preserve rare cultivars which have no wild
populations at all. They do it through very active exchanges of breeding
material every year, plus the advocacy of those specialists and people like
them, plus cooperation between growers and public institutions that grow
fruit trees. You don't see a lot of us vs. them in the fruit world --
everyone is pretty much dedicated to doing whatever it takes to preserve the
fruit varieties. Some varieties get lost, of course, but you might be
surprised by how much survives.
Great example, Lee.
Mike
San Jose, CA